Sooloos Ensemble System: MP3 Player on Crack

You think your 120GB iPod is hot stuff, right? Think again. Sooloos, maker of high-end home networking and entertainment systems, just announced a lower-cost digital music management / storage / playback system with a terabyte of storage. Lower-cost if you consider $7,900.00 a bargain.

The Sooloos Ensemble System can store compressed and FLAC (lossless) files or both. You can rip about 2,400 albums in both formats, so you have high-quality files for listening at home, and MP3 files for on the go.

But, the Ensemble is more than just storage . . .

As you would expect from Sooloos, the Ensemble server can supply music to up to four zones. It comes with the Control:One - a 17-inch touch screen combined with a USB port to transfer files in and out and a CD tray to upload right into the server. The system includes a PC application to back up the server to a hard drive connected to your PC.

The Control:One is a keyboard-less interface with advanced file management to ease navigation through what could be a massive library.

Coolest feature yet: if you want to use it remotely, it can be controlled by your iPhone or iPod touch. High-end server meets most-popular server. Poetic, don't you think? —Leslie Shapiro